Landing closer to target

[evuljeenius]

I'm trying to land my fuel tanker close to my Kethane mining facility but on first landing attempt I can within 1km if I'm lucky. Are there any tricks to get closer on 1st attempt or is it just practice practice practice? I'm trying to land on the Mun if it makes any difference.

BTW I'm trying to make it from Mun to 60km orbit using 1x Rockomax X200-16 Fuel Tank with 2x Rockomax X200-32 and 3 x Rockomax X200-16 Fuel Tank. Do you think this is a bit too ambitious? Don't mind going a bit over but would like it to be worth the trip

[astropapi1]

You'll just have to Amstrong your way closer to the base, or use Mechjeb if you're not against it.

[Brotoro]

I like that 'Armstrong' is a verb.

[astropapi1]

I like that 'Armstrong' is a verb.

Just like 'Kerbal' is an adjective.

[boomerdog2000]

Practice and experience. I definitely haven't got precision landing down yet but I'm getting better. I can at the very least hit the body in question.

[Superfluous J]

Practice makes perfect, but there are a few things you can do to make it a little easier.

Always come in the same way. I like to come in low and fast on a collision trajectory a few KM past where I'm aiming for.

Make a maneuver node right at the ground and drag it retrograde until it stops. That will tell you how long you have to burn to stop your motion.

The first time you land, burn that many seconds before you'll crash into the ground and die (ie, before the maneuver node). You'll come up short (this is good. Coming up long will kill you) which is why I aim long. You'll probably even still come up short. Remember HOW MUCH you came up short.

The next time you land, aim even further away and hopefully, when you repeat the above steps, you'll come to a stop very close to your Kethane base.

Edited November 14, 2013 by 5thHorseman

[SyberSmoke]

Landing, like docking has never been my strong suite. So I use MechJeb for some of those actions. I also find it helpful as I can more finely tune my ships TWR and fuel for trips. That way when the devs put in contracts and money, I can make every Cr count.

[Merinsan]

I always set my target and use the target indicator on the navball. The retrograde mark needs to be centered when you are facing up, so I burn to push it that way. Of course, it uses a lot of fuel.

[regex]

It's pretty tough to eyeball your way in. I recently managed to land a refueling craft within 50m of a lander but I had to "Armstrong" it in. Best way I can describe it is to make a node that would show you impacting on the opposite side of the target, burn, then make a normal decent but focus more on killing your horizontal velocity early so that you come in above the target, then coming down slower than you normally would in order to make corrections. Every body is different so it'll take practice. Always pack along some extra delta-V if you're planning for maneuvers like that, and remember that you have quicksave available to practice with.

[Randox]

As a general rule, I find the steeper your approach (the closer to strait down you come), the easier it is to make adjustments, so I would suggest changing your approach to overshoot your target by a bit, so that you can cancel out most of your lateral velocity while still a few km above the surface. This makes it easier to cancel out your lateral velocity while actually ending up over your target (use the mapview, you should be able to get a feel for it on the way down), and then you have some time to fine tune your final approach.

[Johnno]

Please consider carefully where you place new threads, this one was in the wrong subforum. Rule 2.4 is in effect, repeated offences may lead to infractions.

Thread moved.

[Tank Buddy]

Practice._

[Kasuha]

Get the ship on an orbit going above your target site. Put a maneuver on that orbit slightly before the target site and pull retrograde until you get a trajectory intersecting the terrain near vertical and as close to the site as possible. You can move the maneuver along the orbit and of course use normal/antinormal if you happen to not be exactly above the site.

Select your target site as target (flag, ship, base, anything).

Execute that maneuver as part of your landing and finish the rest using approach similar to orbital rendezvous (warning: much more things to watch).

Notice it is not very optimal landing fuel-wise.